Ailing Couple Perish In Canal

MARGATE — -- A trail of oil on a canal led police to two bodies in a submerged car on Wednesday.

The victims still must be positively identified, but police think they have found Dave and Frances Brown, Lt. Gerard Pettigrossi of the Margate Police Department said.

Dave Brown, 84, and his wife, Frances, 77, have been missing since Thanksgiving Day.

Interviews with neighbors and with the couple's live-in caretaker, as well as the apparent intentional sinking of the car, led police to suspect a double suicide precipitated by the couple's declining health.

Police had been searching for the Browns since a neighbor reported them missing last Thursday. Two police officers were walking near a marina on Wednesday when they noticed an oil slick on the waterway at Rock Island Road and Northwest First Street.

Public works employee Butch Dial donned a diving suit. A nearby fisherman used a depth finder to help Dial pinpoint the 1997 Toyota Corolla registered to the Browns.

Dial said he saw an arm hanging out an open window of the car, which was submerged about 20 feet from the marina ramp in 16 feet of water.

The Browns had a live-in caretaker who was awakened last Thursday at about 2 a.m. by their voices, Pettigrossi said. The caretaker went back to sleep. When she awoke at 6:30 a.m., the Browns were gone.

Dave Brown was an officer of the Oriole Gardens II condo for many years, said one friend who declined to give his name. Brown was president of the entertainment committee, and along with his wife, fielded calls from many Margate seniors interested in attending variety shows.

"Fran and Dave were in that car?" Maddy Grossman cried out when the couple's friend told her. "Oh, my. Oh, my.

"She was on my bowling team," Grossman said. "She hasn't been well; she's been in and out of the hospital. People who live in the condo hadn't heard from them."

Pettigrossi said Dave Brown also was ill. Instructions about what to do with a safe deposit box key in the event of the Browns' death were written on an envelope found in the couple's bedroom, according to the police report filed the day they disappeared.